In another thread there was a comment about the 30% rule getting in the way of a contract extension for LaMarr Woodley. I was going to respond there but since the topic of the thread was not about something totally different, rather than hijack that thread I figured I'd start a new one instead.

The uncapped year rules are making it very difficult for a lot of teams to extend players throughout the league that normally would have been given big contract extensions this year. Since you can only increase yearly salaries by 30%, players like Woodley that are in line for a big payday can only get that money in the form of a signing bonus. Most teams don't want to spend all that money now because of the possibility of no football next year, plus teams would rather pay more each season (a) for better cash flow purposes, and (b) as insurance in case a player's performance drops before the contract runs out. In addition, teams want to know what the new cap is going to be before working out big longterm deals. Add to that the 200+ additional restricted free agents there were this year that would have been unrestricted free agents previously that are playing with one year deals, and the end result is there are going to be far more free agents in the NFL than ever before after the CBA is worked out because so many players are not getting extended this year.

Assuming a new CBA is reached and there is no lockout, how do people think all this will affect the Steelers in 2011? The philosophy has always been to develop from within and has never done a whole lot in free agency; though they did sign a few free agents this year that was atypical and they were players familiar to the team that had been here before. Any chance the Steelers would be more of a player in free agency to upgrade some positions? Do people see a lot more player movement throughout the NFL next year, or do you think most of these players in the last year of their contract will end up re-signing with their original teams?

solardave

06-27-2010, 09:49 AM

Hugh,
That's a good question.I really don't think the FO philosophy will change.My reason is all these guys who don't get their payday this year will look to next year (if we have a CBA) to get their due. They'll still be out of our price range.They may jump teams but I don't think many will jump our way.